n There is room for improvement: The football team continues to graduate

at a lower rate than Cal’s male students (87 percent). But the Bears are

clearly moving in the right direction.

“It’s been very rewarding,” Tedford said. “Sometimes, it takes kids a

little while to figure it out, and when the light goes on – you see as

much self-esteem gained by success in the classroom as on the field.”

Academic Game Plan

It’s a Sunday evening, and Cal’s Memorial Stadium is cold and dark. The

players walk off the field quietly, finished with practice but not with

their day.

One by one, they file into a large room inside the stadium. It’s called

the Big Game Room, and it is here that they review the game plan – the

Academic Game Plan.

Introduced to Tedford during his final season as an assistant coach at

Fresno State (1997), the Academic Game Plan helps the players prepare

for their studies as they would prepare for a game. Coaches are heavily

involved, and there’s a premium placed on accountability. Penalties can

be assessed.

There’s even something that resembles a playbook. Each player has a

black, spiral-bound planner with a semester’s worth of class schedules,

assignments and grades.

One chapter is called the “Scouting Report.” It provides a place to

record all homework, projects, quizzes and tests.

The “Lineup Card” is where players keep their daily, weekly and monthly

schedules.

Grades are recorded in the “Scoreboard” section. There’s a column for

“possible score” and a column for “earned score.”

Every Sunday and Wednesday night throughout the season – and on other

nights during the offseason – the players meet with their position coach

to review the academic playbook.

“As a freshman, you think, ‘What’s this all about? It’s just another

thing I have to do,’?” junior linebacker Mike Mohamed said. “Then you

put the time in, and you figure out that it really works. It keeps you

up to date with everything.

“The Game Plan definitely takes time. But the time you gain from being

organized far outweighs the cost.”

New priorities

When Tedford was hired from the University of Oregon in December of

2001, the Cal football team had just finished a 1-10 season in which it

allowed the most points in school history. The Bears’ academic

performance was no better.

Nine months earlier, the school had been found guilty of academic fraud

by crediting two football players with a class they did not take. The

graduation rate was annually in the 50 percent range – on par with the

national average and often far below that of UCLA, Cal’s sister school.

Academics simply weren’t a priority, according to numerous Cal officials

who requested anonymity. The Athletic Study Center, which provides

academic counseling and tutors, was grossly understaffed. The players

frequently skipped class. The focus was on the field.

“My position coach said academics were No.?2, and football was No.?1,” a

former player said.

Tedford was fully aware of Cal’s issues and presented the Academic Game

Plan during his job interview. After being hired, he worked closely with

Derek Van Rheenen, who had recently been appointed director of the

Athletic Study Center, to restructure the football program’s approach.

They quickly realized there was a connection between bad football and

bad academics.

“The first thing we did was interview every player on the team,” Tedford

said. “We had a laundry list of things, and it did come up that they

were embarrassed to be seen on campus” – and thus in the classroom –

“because of their lack of success on the field.”

Tedford’s academic recovery plan was two-pronged:

n Involve the assistant football coaches.

“The more it looks like (the coaches) care about them as people, the

better they perform,” Van Rheenen said. “If it looks like the coaches

only care about them as players, they start to think ‘I’m being used.’?”

Tedford’s Academic Game Plan calls for each assistant to meet

individually with the players under his supervision for 10-15 minutes,

twice a week.

The sessions provide an opportunity to talk about families, girlfriends

and life in the dorms. But the focus is on schoolwork.

By transforming assistant coaches into de facto academic advisers,

Tedford sent an unmistakable message to the players:

“Part of the dynamic of being on a team is that you know there’s a

penalty and a reward for your performance,” said Taggart McCurdy, who

played for the Bears in 2003-04 and is now a graduate assistant coach.

“As a player, you take academic instruction from a coach much more

seriously than from an adviser.”

n Implement the Academic Game Plan.

Written by John Baxter, who coached with Tedford at Fresno State, the

plan includes tips on note-taking, study guidelines and instructions on

how to present yourself in class.

Tedford has a copy, contained in a massive three-ring binder, on a shelf

in his office. But the players use a condensed version – black spiral

planners with the words “Academic Game Plan” emblazoned on the cover.

At the Academic Game Plan meetings, coaches review the players’ class

notes, discuss upcoming assignments and pepper them with questions –

just as they would during a film session to prepare for the upcoming

game.

“I’ll sit down and say, ‘Where are you with the reading on Aristotle?’?”

said Ron Gould, the running backs coach.

Every assignment and grade is cross-checked against a master list

provided to the coaches by Jon Giesel, the team’s academic coordinator.

Players are categorized using a color-coded system. All freshmen – and

anyone with a grade-point average below 2.3 – are assigned to the red

group, requiring them to meet with coaches and tutors. Players in the

yellow (middle) and green (highest) categories are given more leeway by

Tedford and his assistants.

If players miss class or tutoring sessions, the coaching staff is

alerted. At a certain point, Tedford gets involved and penalties are

handed down – as was the case three weeks ago when cornerback Darian

Hagan was suspended for one game for missing class.

At the heart of the Academic Game Plan is accountability.

“At so many universities, the coaches rely on the academic service staff

for this,” Santa Clara’s Coonan said. “What’s rare about Cal is how the

coaches are so active in terms of academics and connecting with the

students.”

*** I’ll have more Big Game material later tonight, along with bowl options. But I wanted to get this story posted. It took days (and days) (and days) to research and write, and it’s being published in Sunday’s Mercury News on page A1 — and it would have been in Sunday’s paper regardless of the outcome of Big Game.

Because the story ran in the A section, and not in Sports, it was written for a broader audience — hardcore Cal fans might know some or all of the information. Here goes …

The Cal football team has gone from being the worst in its conference to one of the best in the West since Jeff Tedford took over as coach eight years ago.

The turnaround in the classroom has been equally dramatic.

Using an academic version of a football playbook, Tedford has taken the shockingly poor graduation rate of Cal football players and raised it closer to that of schools like Northwestern and Stanford, which played Cal on Saturday in the 112th Big Game.

The latest evidence of his success came last week, when fresh data released by the NCAA showed nearly three-quarters of Tedford’s first recruiting class graduated – a 48-percent increase over the team’s average from the previous decade.

“Tedford has changed the way the football players look at being student-athletes,” said physics professor Robert Jacobsen, who also serves on Cal’s athletic admissions committee.

“One of the things he’s done is kept people in school. They don’t just leave . when they’re done playing. They stay and get their degrees.”

The Federal Graduation Rates, compiled annually by the NCAA, isn’t the only means of quantifying academic success. But it’s the toughest standard because athletes who leave school early to sign professional contracts count as non-graduates, as do players who transfer to other schools – even if they eventually earn their degree.

The graduation rates are also the longest-standing measure, thus the only means of comparing Cal’s academic performance under Tedford to that of his predecessors.

“Jeff took a new approach and a very good approach – and he got instant results,” said Santa Clara University athletic director Dan Coonan, a former Cal administrator who helped hire Tedford. “He’s made the student-athletes accountable, and that’s had a terrific impact.”

These are the highlights of the latest report. All figures refer to freshmen who entered school in the fall of 2002, Tedford’s first year as coach:

* 71 percent of the Cal football players went on to graduate within the allotted six-year window. That’s close to the rate for all of Cal’s male student-athletes (78 percent).

* Cal’s players graduated at a much higher rate than the national average for major college football players (55 percent). Just a few years ago, the Bears were below the national average.

* The graduation rate for African-American players, who make up the majority of Cal’s roster, was 67 percent. That’s 20 points higher than the major college average and two points higher than Cal’s overall graduation rate for black male students.

* There is room for improvement: The football team continues to graduate at a lower rate than Cal’s male students (87 percent). But the Bears are clearly moving in the right direction.

“It’s been very rewarding,” Tedford said. “Sometimes, it takes kids a little while to figure it out, and when the light goes on – you see as much self-esteem gained by success in the classroom as on the field.”

*************

It’s a Sunday evening, and Cal’s Memorial Stadium is cold and dark. The players walk off the field quietly, finished with practice but not with their day.

One by one, they file into a large room inside the stadium. It’s called the Big Game Room, and it is here that they review the game plan – the Academic Game Plan.

Introduced to Tedford during his final season as an assistant coach at Fresno State (1997), the Academic Game Plan helps the players prepare for their studies as they would prepare for a game. Coaches are heavily involved, and there’s a premium placed on accountability. Penalties can be assessed.

There’s even something that resembles a playbook. Each player has a black, spiral-bound planner with a semester’s worth of class schedules, assignments and grades.

One chapter is called the “Scouting Report.” It provides a place to record all homework, projects, quizzes and tests.

The “Lineup Card” is where players keep their daily, weekly and monthly schedules.

Grades are recorded in the “Scoreboard” section. There’s a column for “possible score” and a column for “earned score.”

Every Sunday and Wednesday night throughout the season – and on other nights during the offseason – the players meet with their position coach to review the academic playbook.

“As a freshman, you think, ‘What’s this all about? It’s just another thing I have to do,’?” junior linebacker Mike Mohamed said. “Then you put the time in, and you figure out that it really works. It keeps you up to date with everything.

“The Game Plan definitely takes time. But the time you gain from being organized far outweighs the cost.”

**************

When Tedford was hired from the University of Oregon in December of 2001, the Cal football team had just finished a 1-10 season in which it allowed the most points in school history. The Bears’ academic performance was no better.

Nine months earlier, the school had been found guilty of academic fraud by crediting two football players with a class they did not take. The graduation rate was annually in the 50 percent range – on par with the national average and often far below that of UCLA, Cal’s sister school.

Academics simply weren’t a priority, according to numerous Cal officials who requested anonymity. The Athletic Study Center, which provides academic counseling and tutors, was grossly understaffed. The players frequently skipped class. The focus was on the field.

“My position coach said academics were No.?2, and football was No.?1,” a former player said.

Tedford was fully aware of Cal’s issues and presented the Academic Game Plan during his job interview. After being hired, he worked closely with Derek Van Rheenen, who had recently been appointed director of the Athletic Study Center, to restructure the football program’s approach.

They quickly realized there was a connection between bad football and bad academics.

“The first thing we did was interview every player on the team,” Tedford said. “We had a laundry list of things, and it did come up that they were embarrassed to be seen on campus” – and thus in the classroom – “because of their lack of success on the field.”

Tedford’s academic recovery plan was two-pronged:

* Involve the assistant football coaches.

“The more it looks like (the coaches) care about them as people, the better they perform,” Van Rheenen said. “If it looks like the coaches only care about them as players, they start to think ‘I’m being used.’?”

Tedford’s Academic Game Plan calls for each assistant to meet individually with the players under his supervision for 10-15 minutes, twice a week.

The sessions provide an opportunity to talk about families, girlfriends and life in the dorms. But the focus is on schoolwork.

By transforming assistant coaches into de facto academic advisers, Tedford sent an unmistakable message to the players:

“Part of the dynamic of being on a team is that you know there’s a penalty and a reward for your performance,” said Taggart McCurdy, who played for the Bears in 2003-04 and is now a graduate assistant coach.

“As a player, you take academic instruction from a coach much more seriously than from an adviser.”

* Implement the Academic Game Plan.

Written by John Baxter, who coached with Tedford at Fresno State, the plan includes tips on note-taking, study guidelines and instructions on how to present yourself in class.

Tedford has a copy, contained in a massive three-ring binder, on a shelf in his office. But the players use a condensed version – black spiral planners with the words “Academic Game Plan” emblazoned on the cover.

At the Academic Game Plan meetings, coaches review the players’ class notes, discuss upcoming assignments and pepper them with questions – just as they would during a film session to prepare for the upcoming game.

“I’ll sit down and say, ‘Where are you with the reading on Aristotle?’?” said Ron Gould, the running backs coach.

Every assignment and grade is cross-checked against a master list provided to the coaches by Jon Giesel, the team’s academic coordinator.

Players are categorized using a color-coded system. All freshmen – and anyone with a grade-point average below 2.3 – are assigned to the red group, requiring them to meet with coaches and tutors. Players in the yellow (middle) and green (highest) categories are given more leeway by Tedford and his assistants.

If players miss class or tutoring sessions, the coaching staff is alerted. At a certain point, Tedford gets involved and penalties are handed down – as was the case three weeks ago when cornerback Darian Hagan was suspended for one game for missing class.

At the heart of the Academic Game Plan is accountability.

“At so many universities, the coaches rely on the academic service staff for this,” Santa Clara’s Coonan said. “What’s rare about Cal is how the coaches are so active in terms of academics and connecting with the students.”

Jon Wilner

Post navigation

Thanks for the story, Jon. We have been wrongly ridiculed for a while now based on out of date data.

That said. The 2009 Big Game will forever be etched in my mind as “The Hubris!”

Tim

As a former player and current donor and fan, this is they way I want the program to develop. We demand excellence on the field and in the class room. I am proud of our program and when we do make it to the next level, we will have done it the right way. Go Bears.

Telrod

You should, Mr Wilner, write more of these. There’s something essentially transcendent about committing to long trails of prose. I was curious about this and there you are: it’s laid out for the thoughtful reader to ask and answer his own questions, free of the polemics of so much of journalism.

For many students at Cal, their parents performed this organizational function. They were wise enough not just to say in high school, “Do your homework”, they personally set up performance patterns and the discipline routes to achieve them. Incentives were important and they paid attention—a lot of attention. For the top athletes I knew their parents just said, “How was practice?”

Graduates from schools like Cal and Stanford are prized more for their ability to learn than for what the know. Athletic programs are provided to build character and promote sportsmanship, not just win games. Your article points all this out. And here I thought you were just the master of the feuilleton.

milo

With the horrid economy and the California state budget crisis, it’s nice to read something positive and done right. The 32% fee increase is truly heart breaking but the Big Game win helps a little bit.

A tip of the hat to Jeff Tedford. He’s obviously a college football coach at heart, an educator and the right man for the Cal HC job. He really is providing his student athletes with something invaluable.

Go Bears!

A_teacher_and_a_former_athlete

This is a nice twist to the debate about coaching salaries vs. “academic integrity”.

People normally justify a coaches salary by attendance, television and bowl games. But after reading this article, it looks like a good chunk of Tedford’s salary is based on being an academic coach as well.

It could be argued that what Tedford does for ~70 players a year (graduates them) is more important than the Bowls. Many student-atheletes are honestly so focused on professional sports that they fail to make secondary plans. Having a degree opens up options that these kids would never have had.

Kudos to Sandy Barbour and Jeff Tedford. They are doing it right.

Golden Bear

Great write-up John. I see you changed your tune a bit since JT won the Big Game and beat the toast of college football in their own house.

Stories like this need to be published and submitted to people like those bozos at the Chronicle who write up how detrimental athletics are to the university.

Also send a copy over to Ratto. He could use something to cheer about on occasion!!

Nice article. Ted Miller from ESPN pointed me over here and it was definitely worth the read.

Did you know that Ezeff, the big-play safety from that Oregon game, prioritized classes over football practices? Unbelievable…in a good way.

Dan

I have been critical of certain aspects of what Tedford does, or doesn’t do, in games for several years now. I do think he plays too predictably and conservatively at times, in essence playing not to lose instead of playing to win- my definition of playing to win, which is playing with no fear. I feel his teams could have performed better given the talent level.

While I still believe that is true, I have been reminded the last 2 weeks how lucky Cal is to have Tedford as it’s head coach. One way is by seeing the lack of class/character that Harbaugh has demonstrated the past 2 weeks. It makes me realize that Tedford would never behave like that- that makes me proud to be a Bear fan.

Secondly, reading how he truly emphasizes academics- in fact what he has done academically for the Golden Bear football program may be more impressive than what his teams have accomplished on the field. Heck brought this philosophy to Cal, he brought in the Academic Game Plan.

This ongoing accomplishment is a living testimony to Tedford. What this does for his players, and even staff, is a gift for life.

Cornhusker

Excellent article. Encouraging story, and well-written to boot. This is an aspect of the job that coaches don’t get nearly enough credit for when they do it well. I’m a Midwesterner, so I was brought up with Tom Osborne and Joe-Pa as examples of coaches that could win without sacrificing off the field – always graduating their players at extremely high rates, and pumping out Academic All-Americans. Anyone can win when they have talent or a brilliant scheme, and demand little to nothing from their players in the classroom (well…not ANYONE, but you get the point).

Tedford realizes what all college coaches should: He’s not just these kids’ coach, he’s a guardian of their futures. For most of them, that future does not include professional sports, and he as a responsibility to ensure that their time in Berkeley allows them to succeed off of the field. Hats off to Jeff Tedford.

joyce r dunn, M.A.

As a Cal graduate in Psychology, and as a graduate student in English, I want the Bears to exceed in all: athletic and academic.
I’m very glad we have JT as our football coach,; I want to see basketball players catch up to football in academic success.

Regards
Joyce R. Dunn, M.A.
Go Bears!

Steve-O

Great story. As an alum, I’ve always been bothered by Cal Football’s reputation. Good to see Tedford made a difference.